A BC mayor has written an open letter to the BC Ministry of Transportation demanding changes to how the province deals with its snow response, preventing events like the one we experienced last week.
The letter comes from George Harvie, the mayor of the City of Delta, who recently became the chair of the Metro Vancouver board.
In the letter, Harvie refers to last Tuesday’s snow event as a “failure of provincial highway winter maintenance.”
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The Delta mayor calls the need to implement a sufficient plan in response to snow events “vital” to prevent traffic gridlock and the failure of the provincial transportation system.
He also wants the ministry to review its contract with the Mainroad Group, the group currently responsible for winter maintenance and the group that deploys the plows into`Â areas that need them.
Mainroad issued a statement following Tuesday’s snowmageddon, suggesting that it relies on the public to be prepared for winter conditions on the road. Mainroad said that a bad situation was “worsened by motorists that were not prepared for winter driving conditions, causing many incidents and stalls.”
Mainroad also issued a statement ahead of potential snowfall on Tuesday.
WEATHER ADVISORY
Winter weather is in the forecast for the #LowerMainland on Tuesday. Potential for minor snow accumulations. Crews are prepared and pre-treating roads with salt and brine.
Drive with caution and to conditions. Check @DriveBC for updates. pic.twitter.com/eQbs7zlDAb
— Mainroad Contracting | Shift into Winter (@MainroadLM) December 6, 2022
Mainroad wasn’t the only agency shifting the blame onto motorists. The BC Ministry of Transportation also said that people leaving work early were partly to blame.
Harvie’s open letter instead points the blame directly at the BC government and, seemingly, Mainroad.
In the letter, Harvie points out that some commuters were stuck in traffic for upwards of 10 hours.
“It is very concerning that while the transportation network was failing, commuters were still continuing to try to enter the transportation system.”
Harvie suggests the province review the BC Emergency Alerting System “to notify regional residents when the provincial highway system is out of service.”
He adds that effective use of this resource “would deter people from entering the provincial transportation system and adding more traffic to an already failing system.”
This Tuesday’s forecast, thankfully, doesn’t call for the level of snow we saw last week.
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